Shallow-Water Blow-Downs On the Main River Channel

EDITOR'S NOTE: To catch hot-weather crappie, a fisherman must know what causes crappie to leave their deep-water haunts and move into shallow water when the temperature climbs high enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk. I fished with Phillip Criss, a crappie guide from Adger, Alabama, to learn more about hot-weather crappie fishing.

Most bass fishermen fish trees that have blown over into the water from the stumps of those trees down into the trunks and out over the limbs into deep water. I assumed Criss and I would use this technique when he said we would fish some old blow-downs. We slowly motored up to a tree stuck in a mud flat in only about 2 1/2-feet of water. The roots of the tree pointed upstream, and half of the trunk and half of the top of the tree remained above the surface and pointing downstream.

As we approached the tree, I told Criss, "I don't see enough water around that tree to float a crappie."

Criss smiled mischievously and recommended that I leave my pole in the boat, and, "Let me catch the fish."

Criss dropped his minnow in the water upcurrent of the roots. I watched as the bobber floated toward the roots, stopped and then sank. Criss muscled a 1 1/2-pound crappie away from the tree roots. After watching Criss take the second fish, I flipped my bait upstream, let it wash toward the roots of the tree and started catching crappie, too.

"The root ball of the tree not only stops the current when the water pulls through the lake, but it also creates a reverse current," Criss explained. "Once the water hits the roots and changes direction to flow upstream, a dead spot forms just under the surface of the water. You'll find crappie holding in this slack water."

I also learned that the force of the current coming downstream had dug the mud bottom away from much of the root system of the tree. By fishing immediately behind the root system, I discovered slack water containing plenty of big crappie.

Anytime you can find a tree lying on a shallow flat with its roots exposed and pointing upstream, you can assume you may find a deep hole in front of or behind the root system. Remember, the tree breaks the current and creates a cool, well-oxygenated and bait-rich slack-water area when the current runs. However, you won't find this spot nearly as productive when the current doesn't run.

To contact Phillip Criss about crappie fishing, write him at 504 Smith Camp Loop Adger, AL 35006.

Tomorrow: Deep-Water Blow-Downs On The Main River